‘That seems fair enough, guv,’ Abbott said. ‘Do you want to find out where he is so that we can go and see him?’

‘Bill can wait,’ James said. ‘I think we should go back to the village hall to take stock and find out where we are with backup and forensics.’

‘And what about suspects, guv? Who gets a visit from us after that?’

James chewed on his tongue as he mulled this over.

‘We start with Keith Patel,’ he said. ‘The guy made it clear to us what he thought about Daniel. And then we move onto Giles Keegan. He clashed with Daniel twice during the past couple of days.’

‘So do you actually think that those two might also have killed Charlie Jenkins and Lorna Manning?’ Abbott asked.

James pulled a face because the question felt like a heavy weight pressing down on him.

‘At this stage in the game I think anything is possible,’ he said.

There was some good and some bad news waiting for them at the village hall.

The bad news was that the two detectives who’d been travelling to Kirkby Abbey had been forced to head to Kendal instead because of impassable roads.

The good news was that a police helicopter was to be used to transport a couple of SOCOs to the village. The same chopper would then take Daniel’s body to the mortuary.

‘It’s not an ideal situation, I know,’ DCI Tanner said. ‘But it’s the best we can do at this time. I don’t want the body left there longer than is necessary.’

DS Stevens had arrived at the office and was taking part in the conference call. He revealed that the press had already been tipped off that another body had turned up.

‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ James said. ‘Word spreads quickly in this place.’

‘But on a case like this we need to control the narrative,’ Tanner said. ‘So, let’s make sure that everything goes through the press office. No off the record briefings. I don’t want to give the impression that we’re having problems coping.’

But the truth was they were having problems, and James feared that it could still get worse.

After the call ended, he and DC Abbott left the hall intending to visit Keith Patel and Giles Keegan. But first they returned to the crime scene outside the garden centre.

The officers had been forced to close one side of the road and put up a tape cordon because a number of villagers were braving the snow to see what was happening.

Daniel’s body had been covered with some heavy-duty green tarpaulin and three uniforms in high-vis jackets were standing guard. They’d been told the police helicopter would arrive in about an hour and had arranged for it to land in the field opposite.

As requested, the garden centre had remained closed and the owner, along with his two members of staff, had provided all their details.

There were several other detached bungalows along this stretch of road, plus a doctor’s surgery. Another officer had been going door-to-door trying to find out if Daniel Curtis or anyone else had been seen walking past their homes last night. But all those spoken to so far had said they were in bed and saw nothing.